Trial of this during the months after Star Wars Land opened. Except for Epcot.
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Iād love to know how many people have purchased MaxPass vs wait it out in DL. Iām thinking that WDW is already so expensive and if it will make the experience better, particularly if the new paid pass is popular, it will almost be a must-have. Whoās going to stand in line when the majority of people are walking on with an express pass?
I remember seeing (or reading?) an interview that said the idea of the FP was originally for people to make reservations for a ride. Everyone else is standby. So if you now charge for this, and people realize they can get value out of it, it will become just part of the ticket price.
What about the virtual lines that they were doing with the new Star Wars rides? What are the chances something like that is incorporated?
I tend to agree with @ryan1 and @darkmite2. Here are my thoughts:
- FPP makes the average standby wait longer
- Planning for and around FPP can be stressful
- FPP does not always guarantee a short wait and in some cases you are probably waiting longer than if the attraction didnāt offer FPP
- MaxPass is a great system at Disneyland and I would be in favor of using it at WDW, except that it probably wouldnāt work as well due to proportion of non-local guests willing to shell out extra
- The current state of limited capacity and no FPP is ideal, IMO. The two or three very long lines that you have to wait in per park (eg, 7DMT, Splash, BTMRR) probably donāt add up to the 20 (individually shorter) lines you had to wait in before the caps.
Iām not sure what the best path forward is, but I think something like a virtual queue for any of the rides with a wait over 1 hour would be nice, but still make guests wait at least 30 min to avoid the problem @ryan1 mentioned about keeping guests occupied. This works because most headliner queues are interesting enough to be worth 30 min, but waiting longer than that is never fun.
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I had read somewhere that MaxPass works because Disneyland hasnāt got the massive on property number of guests that WDW has.
No idea where I read this and since Iāve been only maybe 4 times to DL - last time being 2013 - I have no personal experience.
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I agree, but with no FPP you would have more people waiting in standby anyway. I think the effect would be that people that effectively use FPP would ride fewer rides, thus making it more āfairā. I always saw the FPP system as a way of ārewardingā people that were willing to put in the effort to plan. Those are probably the same people that come back over and over.
Now, I have never used the MaxPass system, but it does seem like it would just become another thing you need to buy. With the current FPP on-property bonus, there are other benefits that roll into the choice to stay on-property, so I feel that it is not just about the early FPP booking. And even staying off-property you are at an advantage compared to people that do no planning and still have access to same day drops. So still a benefit to those that are willing to put in some effort.
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We have purchased MaxPass two (or maybe three?) times - meaning individual days. Mostly we have not used it, but we have been going often enough that we donāt really care that much about optimizing our rides to the nth degree. The two times I can recall for sure buying it were days that were predicted to be crowd level 9 days. We just didnāt want to fight the crowds back and forth across the parks. If itās a low crowd day, we just wing it and get the old style FPās. We also tend to use single rider lines A LOT to beat the crowds. Itās often better than a FP/MaxPass. We can do this because my kids are teens (wait! I have a 20 year old! So a teen and a no longer teen! 
) Single rider doesnāt work for families with young kids.
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This is kind of late but you donāt need Maxpass! You really donāt! If you are able to run around the parks like you did in the old days of WDW, you can get good fastpasses totally free. Iām a Disneyland AP holder and I always do this. Get a Space FP first thing, 2 hours later grab an Indy fastpass before you even use Space, get HM and BTTM 45 min in advanceā¦the other rides are pretty easy to not need one for. You can collect them all day with just a little forethought and all for free without staring at a phone.
Maxpass is paid for convenience, but you can still use FP without paying. I hope they get rid of FP entirely or keep it free. I really hope they donāt move to pay-to-play only. Disney is already only for those that can afford it, but so many micro-transactions will make a day at Disney feel like a crappy mobile game. One that I couldnāt afford.
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This. Any paid FP system at WDW is going to have to price the premium ride FPs at a high price because so many are willing to pay extra. I think RotR FPs would sell out at $50 per FP per person just for that 1 ride.
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And I believe we had a discussion on the DLR forum about why some of us donāt like the Universal EP. Just donāt like pay to play once weāve already paid to walk in the gates!
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Is MaxPass that much of an advantage for people who pay for it? I got it mostly for the convenience of not walking (it was a solo one day trip, after all), but people who are willing to walk around the park have access to the same FPs using the kiosks, limited by similar rules.
Since the advantage is not so big I donāt think it would be so prevalent at WDW. I think it would be problematic because guests are already used to being able to make reservations on their phones, so it would feel like charging for a previously free perk.
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The genius of FPP is that it secretly sells premium FPs for a higher price, without bothering anyone about it. Some FPs (like morning FOP) were only available at 60+5, so you needed a long onsite stay to get them. Spending one night onsite to get that 1 special FP was not enough.
It was surprising that all hotels had the same access to 60 days booking (except club level). Disney could easily make this tiered (80 for deluxe, 70 for moderate, 60 for value), but them maybe the extra incentive for long stays wouldnāt be so large.
I know some examples of people who stayed at Disney while going first to Universal to take advantage of the better FP later (they would have stayed at Universal and changed resorts if it werenāt for this).
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Itās worth it to me because it saves you from walking and thatās huge when you have 4 young kids like I do! Without kids itās probably not as worth it. Other perks:
- You can get a FP from outside the parks as long as you have tapped in to a park that day
- There is sometimes more inventory / earlier times available for MaxPass than paper FP
- You can get a FP for the other park
Thatās all the same as FPP. But here are some benefits compared to FPP:
- You can only make reservations day-of - no 30/60/90-day disparity
- You can only get one additional FP at a time until you are eligible for another (though you can hold multiple)
- This increases availability of FP for most attractions since people canāt horde certain FPs
- Lower percentage of capacity is allocated to FPP so lines are generally shorter, especially for high-capacity rides
- For example, Pirates of the Caribbean is rarely more than a 15-20 min wait at DL, whereas it often approaches an hour at WDW (pre-COVID); similar with Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, etc.
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Iām going to add that there are many ppl here that pay for moderate, deluxe resorts and DVC. Thatās not something Iām interested in. The extra $1,000s spent on a hotel room - which I only see as a place to put my bags while Iām in the park all day & night are boggling to me. However, I will gladly pay $20 / person per day for MaxPass especially when it includes PhotoPass.
Plus, for many this is a once or twice in a lifetime trip. They arenāt Liners who plan everything and go many times. Theyāll want to āguaranteeā they can do whatever they want even if it means paying an extra $100+ / day.
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An additional value of MaxPass is that you can get another one in a shorter time frame than you are eligible for another FP. Itās like 90 minutes instead of 2 hours , or something like that. I think. @Jeff_AZ probably knows.
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A lot of great advantages. Disneyland is my favorite Disney park now, in part because of MaxPass (and all my favorite rides + SWGE + easily walkable + amazing food 
)
I do think a family with MP will have a more convenient day with less walking, but they wonāt necessarily go to many more rides, or even be able to do more headliners. So it could work in WDW.
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RotR is not a $50 per ride attraction IMHO.
I do not recall that poll on what I would pay, but I hope I answered āWouldnāt pay on principleā.
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I believe the poll is technically still open, so you can go vote now. 
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I havenāt ridden it yet and would pretty much do a whole trip just to ride it, so yeah - $50 is nothing. For the first time, anyway.
Thatās correct, but itās a little more complicated than that. I pasted a blog post from Undercover Tourist below in case anyone is interested in the details. 
Waiting Periods for MaxPass
Understand the Waiting Periods
When you make a FASTPASS reservation for a ride (not a show), there is a waiting period before you are eligible to make the next reservation. That period can vary depending on how far off your return window is from when you booked it. That is why having a strategy can help you make the most of this system.
If a rideās return window is less than 30 minutes away, then the waiting period is 30 minutes (unless you activate the FASTPASS within that 30 minutes ā once you scan it at a ride, it erases the waiting period and you are then free to make another reservation). Letās say at 9 a.m. you book a FASTPASS that is from 9:05 a.m. to 10:05 a.m. and you scan in at FASTPASS Return Immediately; then, you can book a new ride right away, because that waiting period is lifted. But if you wait until 9:40 a.m. to ride, then you have to wait until 9:30 a.m. (when the 30-minute waiting period is over) to select the next FASTPASS.
If the return window begins between 30 to 90 minutes from when you booked it, then the waiting period ends as soon as the return window begins; so if at 2 p.m. you reserve a ride that has a return window of 3:15 p.m. to 4:15 p.m., you can make your next reservation as early as 3:15 p.m. when the return window opens.
When you choose a ride that has a return time that begins more than 90 minutes from booking, then your waiting period is 90 minutes. Being able to see all of the available rides and return window choices can help you plan and make decisions to best manage your day. You can have multiple FASTPASS reservations at a time. You just have to book the next one after the waiting period ends. Set an alarm on your phone to remind you to book the next ride as soon as you are eligible.
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The average number of rides a guest does in a day depends only on total ride capacity and number of people inside the park.
If a park has 10 rides, each open for 10 hours with capacity for 1000 people per hour, total ride capacity for the park is going to be 100.000. If 20.000 guests go there in a day, each guest will on average ride 5 times.
FP, MP, FPP, virtual queues or stand by wonāt change this. Different systems change how this average is distributed among guests (50% going on 7 rides while 50% go on 3 will also have an average of 5/guest/day) and how do you spend your time between rides (on a virtual queue only system, waiting in line might not even happen, this works for water parks where staying in a pool to wait is a great alternative).
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